JP2017125269A - Smart helmet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a smart helmet which appropriately mounts an electrode for biological information acquisition which can stably and easily measure biological information, environment information and body motion information at the same time without giving pain to a subject and a sensor which can measure temperature, humidity and acceleration, performs distribution to the outside by using a radio communication device, displays the fatigue degree of a body and a condition of health on a screen, and is used for a system which can perform prevention determination.SOLUTION: An electrode 5 for biological information acquisition is provided in a part which comes into contact with a skin of a head band 3 or a chin strap 4, and the electrode for biological information acquisition is made of a flexible conductive cloth configured by performing weave processing of conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers, wherein an electrode material is silver-coated organic fibers or a plurality of fibers containing the silver-coated organic fibers.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a smart helmet that a subject wears on his / her head, and more particularly, obtains environmental information and body movement information including biological information of the subject, and monitors the physical condition such as fatigue level of the subject. The present invention relates to a smart helmet used for work safety.

  It is well known to acquire biological information by attaching electrodes to a hat or a helmet (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). Examples of biological information include brain waves, heart rate, pulse wave, body temperature, and the like. In order to obtain this biometric information, it describes a system that measures bioelectrical impedance, detects the degree of fatigue, sleepiness, etc. of a subject, warns and prompts a break.

  Patent Document 3 describes a cowboy hat that can be easily operated by a non-professional person such as a doctor or a researcher. The skin contact portion of the electrode pad is interposed with a conductive cloth, a conductive paste, or the like, and the skin. It is described that it is preferable to reduce the impedance.

  Patent Document 4 describes a helmet that functions as a fatigue monitoring device. Specifically, the helmet is installed in the cap body, contacts the position of the head, the first electrode for acquiring the first information, and is installed outside the cap body and contacts the other position of the head. It is described that the electroencephalogram information is acquired by electrically connecting the second electrode for acquiring the second information. Although the material and details of the electrode are not described, the details are unknown, but it can be seen from the drawing that the second electrode is a clip type and is sandwiched between ears.

  Patent Document 5 relates to an underwear electrode that electrically stimulates the human body, forming an electrode by weaving a conductive thread into a weave of a power net made of a synthetic fiber of nylon and urethane, the conductive thread, It is described that metal type such as gold thread and silver thread, or conductive thin line such as copper wire, aluminum wire and carbon fiber is used.

  Patent Document 6 describes a biomedical electrode in which an electrode material is formed of a silver-coated organic fiber body or a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers and has rubber elasticity. And, in order to obtain biological information such as a circulatory system and a respiratory system, it is described that the impedance of the living body is measured.

JP 2010-148718 A JP 2005-230030 A JP 2011-182773 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2015-021215 JP 2000-312002 A JP 05-137703 A

  However, as an electrode for measuring bioimpedance in order to obtain biometric information, a material in which a metal fiber such as copper-based or Ni-based fabric is woven is problematic in terms of safety and stability and will be put into practical use. There were few. In particular, since this fabric has poor stretchability, there was a problem that the subject felt pain when worn. Even when a conductive cloth is used, a conductive paste is often applied to the contact portion in order to reduce the impedance of the skin, and the work before and after use is complicated.

  Therefore, in view of the above-described situation, the present invention intends to solve a biological information acquisition electrode and a temperature that can simultaneously and stably measure biological information, environmental information, and body motion information without causing pain to the subject. Providing a smart helmet for use in a system that is equipped with sensors that can measure humidity and acceleration as needed, distributed to the outside using a wireless communication device, displays the degree of fatigue and health of the body, and can make preventive decisions It is in.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is provided with a biological information acquisition electrode at a site contacting the skin of a headband or chin strap, and the biological information acquisition electrode is made of silver-coated organic fiber or silver-coated electrode material. A plurality of fibers containing organic fibers, and composed of a conductive cloth having flexibility, which is formed by weaving or knitting these conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers to constitute a smart helmet. .

  Here, the thickness of the silver-coated organic fiber used for the electrode material is preferably an aggregate of 30 to 150 denier.

  The silver-coated organic fiber preferably has a silver coating amount of 5 to 30% by weight based on the weight of the organic fiber.

  The silver-coated organic fiber preferably has a surface resistance of 20 Ω / cm or less.

  The silver-coated organic fiber preferably has a specific gravity of 1.4 to 1.8.

  In the smart helmet of the present invention as described above, the electrode material is a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers or silver-coated organic fibers, and these conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers are woven or knitted. Since the electrode for biometric information acquisition composed of a flexible conductive cloth is provided at the site of the headband or chin strap that contacts the skin, the biometric information acquisition electrode having flexibility on the scalp or skin contacts However, it is possible to acquire biological information without causing pain for a long time. The biometric information acquisition electrode used in the present invention can measure bioimpedance with minimal contact or non-contact.

It is a fragmentary sectional view which shows the usage example of the smart helmet of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the example which mounted | wore the headband with the electrode for biometric information acquisition. It is a side view which shows the example which mounted | worn the biometric information acquisition electrode to the chin string. It is a graph which shows the IV characteristic of various conductive fibers. It is a graph which shows the washing durability evaluation result of a silver covering organic fiber, and shows the change of surface resistance with respect to the frequency | count of washing. It is a graph which shows the experimental result that perspiration information is acquirable with a living body information acquisition electrode, and shows the change of the electrostatic capacity to the amount of moisture. It is a monitor screen which shows the example which displays the state for every test subject based on the various information acquired using the smart helmet of this invention.

  The smart helmet of the present invention acquires biological information from a biological information acquisition electrode provided on a portion of the headband or chin strap that comes into contact with the skin while the subject (operator) wears it on the head. At the same time, environmental information such as the outside air temperature is acquired by various sensors attached to the cap body, the movement of the subject is acquired as body movement information, and the information is sequentially transmitted to the monitoring server by wireless communication means. It can be used in a system that processes information and monitors the physical condition of the subject, such as fatigue, to prevent accidents and improve work efficiency. In addition, when the monitoring server detects an abnormality of the subject, a warning signal can be transmitted to the subject's smart helmet to notify the fitee.

  Next, the present invention will be described in more detail based on the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a state in which a smart helmet 1 according to the present invention is put on the head of a subject (operator) M, in which 2 is a cap body, 3 is a headband, and 4 is a chin cord.

  One or both of the headband 3 and the chin cord 4 are provided with a biological information acquisition electrode 5 for acquiring biological information. The biological information acquisition electrode 5 is composed of a plurality of fibers whose electrode material contains silver-coated organic fibers or silver-coated organic fibers, and these conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers are woven or knitted. Made of flexible conductive cloth.

  In the case where the biological information acquisition electrode 5 is provided on the headband 3, as shown in FIG. 2, the biological information acquisition electrode 5 made of a conductive cloth having flexibility at the portion of the headband 3 that contacts the forehead of the subject. To cover. It is more preferable that the biological information acquisition electrode 5 attached to the headband 3 has a deodorizing function and a water absorption quick-drying function. Further, when the biological information acquisition electrode 5 is provided on the chin string 4, as shown in FIG. 3, the chin string 4 is made of a flexible conductive cloth itself. Also in this case, it is preferable to use a composite fiber structure material in which the chin string 4 is combined with a fiber having a deodorizing function and a reinforcing fiber so that the breaking load is 110 kgf or more.

  If the weaving process or the knitting process is devised, an electrode part constituting the biological information acquiring electrode 5 can be provided on a part of a flexible cloth, and the electrode part can be provided at a plurality of locations.

  The biological information acquisition electrode 5 used in the present invention is composed of a silver-coated organic fiber and a non-conductive fiber by weaving or knitting, has flexibility, excellent bending properties, and adhesion to a measurement site. The skin feels good. Further, since the biological information acquisition electrode 5 is a cloth, it can be cut into an arbitrary shape and sewn to an arbitrary place by a sewing machine. Furthermore, the biometric information acquisition electrode 5 can be used integrally with another non-conductive cloth. And it is a contact or non-contact with the measurement site | part of the test subject M, and biometric information can be measured with minimal invasiveness. In addition, it is possible to use it dry without using conductive gel, conductive grease or the like between the skin and the electrode.

  The biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition electrode 5 is a change in bioelectrical impedance of an electroencephalogram, a heartbeat, and a pulse. The environmental information acquired by the various sensors attached to the cap body 2 is temperature (air temperature), humidity, or rainfall conditions, and the body motion information is information related to the movement of the body. It is equipped with an arithmetic circuit that measures and analyzes it, and uses a wireless communication device to distribute information to the monitoring server so that the situation can be known on the screen.

  In FIG. 1, a temperature / humidity sensor 6 and an acceleration sensor 7 are provided together with an arithmetic circuit and a wireless communication device (not shown) using the space at the top of the head 2 inside the cap body 2. Is getting. In addition, a temperature / humidity sensor 8 is provided outside the cap body 2, in the illustrated portion located at the back of the head, to acquire environmental information. In addition, a battery 9 for supplying power to various sensors, arithmetic circuits, and wireless communication devices is provided outside the cap body 2 at the rear part.

  The silver-coated organic fibers used in the present invention are natural and synthetic organic fibers, that is, fibers of cotton, hemp, polyamide, acrylic, polyester, cellulose polyurethane, etc., and the thickness is 0.1 to 15d (d = denier) ) Is coated with silver. Here, as a reason for sticking to the thickness of the organic fiber, when the thickness is thinner than 0.1 d, a large amount of silver coating is required to obtain a target film thickness, and the specific gravity also increases. Conversely, if it is thicker than 15d, the silver coating amount for making the target film thickness can be reduced, but the fiber becomes hard and the flexibility is lost. And the surface of the said organic fiber is coat | covered with silver, and it produces so that the thickness of a silver covering organic fiber may become an aggregate of 30-150d.

  In the present invention, there are several methods for coating organic fibers with silver, but in consideration of mass productivity, coating is performed by an electroless plating method. The silver coating amount is 5 to 30% by weight (silver weight / organic fiber weight), and the polarization voltage is affected by the silver coating amount. The form of the electrode material formed of silver-coated organic fibers or a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers includes non-woven fabrics made only of silver-coated organic fibers, non-woven fabrics containing silver-coated organic fibers, and only silver-coated organic fibers. A conductive cloth produced by weaving and knitting the yarn.

  In order to endure actual use as the biological information acquisition electrode 5, in addition to flexibility and flexibility, washing durability is required. The silver-coated organic fiber used in this embodiment is AGposs (registered trademark) manufactured by Mitsufuji Corporation. The flexibility and flexibility of the conductive cloth are also described in the patent literature and have already been demonstrated.

  In FIG. 4, the result of having measured the IV characteristic of the silver covering organic fiber (1)-(3) which concerns on this invention, and evaluating electroconductivity was shown. For comparison, IV characteristics of polyurethane-coated copper wire, nichrome wire, and carbon fiber tow were also measured. The resistance value measurement method showed the result of measuring the above-mentioned line, tow, and fiber, extending the distance between measurements to 10 cm, and measuring three times.

  Table 1 shows the resistance values of the electrode materials whose IV characteristics were measured. Furthermore, in the case where an electrode is prepared using each electrode material, the comfort, weaving, knitting, washing characteristics, biocompatibility, antibacterial properties, and conductive characteristics are indicated by ○ (good), Δ (slightly good), × Table 1 shows the results of evaluation in three stages (defect).

  As a result of these evaluations, it was confirmed that the silver-coated organic fiber has conductivity comparable to that of a metal fiber and can be used as an electrode material. Although metal fibers exhibit excellent conductive properties, it can be determined that they are unsuitable for electrodes that come into contact with the skin or human body because they are not comfortable and biocompatible.

  As the washing durability evaluation, the surface resistance of the woven fabric was measured after washing the silver-coated organic fiber fabric using a neutral detergent in a household washing machine, and the washing durability was evaluated. The average value obtained by measuring 5 points in the warp direction and the transverse direction of the fabric is graphed and shown in FIG. In the graph of FIG. 5, the lower side is a result of a conductive cloth produced by weaving only silver-coated organic fibers, and the upper side is a result of electroless silver plating applied to a cloth produced by weaving organic fibers. It is a result of a characteristic cloth (post-dyed). Unless post-dyed (silver coating after weaving), it can be judged that the change in surface resistance is small and durable.

  Next, a moisture (sweat) sensor was produced using the bio-information acquisition electrode 5 and it was confirmed that it could actually be measured. Silver-coated organic fiber is used as the electrode material, and the moisture sensor (1) is made of silver-plated fiber and is made of conductive wearable knit fabric (surface resistance value of 5 Ω / cm or more), and the moisture sensor (2) is silver A conductive wearable knit tape (surface resistance value of 0.5 Ω / cm or more) made of plated fiber was used. For the moisture sensors (1) and (2), silver-plated fibers (trade name AGposs) manufactured by Mitsufuji Corporation were used.

  In the evaluation method, a silver-coated organic fiber electrode (cloth-like electrode 5) is manufactured on the headband 3 for fixing the helmet and the head, and is placed inside the cap body 2 so as to come into contact with the scalp (forehead). The change in capacitance due to moisture generated on the scalp (forehead) was measured. Actually, the cloth-like electrode 5 was allowed to absorb a predetermined amount of water, and the change in capacitance was measured. A Kaise digital multimeter KT-2011 was used as a measuring device. The result is shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the capacitance changes according to the amount of water, and the biological information acquisition electrode 5 is placed inside the helmet so as to come into contact with the scalp (forehead), and moisture generated in the scalp (forehead). It was found that the change in capacitance due to can be detected.

  In addition, an experiment for acquiring electroencephalogram information was performed using the biological information acquiring electrode 5. In the experiment method, a silver-coated organic fiber electrode (cloth-like electrode) is manufactured as a biological information acquisition electrode 5 on the headband 3 that fixes the helmet and the head, and the inside of the helmet is in contact with the scalp (forehead). The brain waves were measured using a commercially available electroencephalograph from the scalp (forehead). It was confirmed that an electroencephalogram could be acquired with the biological information acquisition electrode 5.

  EEG measurement, temperature / humidity data can be measured by the above method, and EEG data can be analyzed on the tablet PC screen to inform (1) attention / concentration, (2) calm / relax, and (3) It is possible to simultaneously measure and notify the temperature / humidity inside the helmet and (4) the temperature outside the helmet, and a display example of the monitor screen is shown in FIG.

  In this way, the electrode material is formed of silver-coated organic fibers or a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers, and the biometric information acquisition electrode is placed inside the helmet and flexibly brought into contact with the scalp to give pain. It was possible to obtain biometric information without any problems. Furthermore, the silver-coated organic fiber used for the electrode material has a low polarization voltage, and enables safe and stable measurement.

  As described above, the smart helmet according to the present invention is equipped with the electrode for biometric information acquisition in which the electrode material is formed of silver-coated organic fibers or a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers, so that the subject wears the helmet In this case, the touch to the scalp contact portion of the biometric information acquisition electrode is good, there is no pain caused by compression, the reliability of impedance measurement is improved, and stable biometric information can be obtained.

  Moreover, it can measure simultaneously with the sensor which measures environmental information other than biometric information, and body movement information, calculates, delivers test subject information using a wireless communication device, and can know a condition on a screen. By accumulating the above information and associating it with big data, it is possible to provide a system for predicting signs of health deterioration and protecting yourself from dangerous conditions.

  Although the present invention is applied to a helmet, the present invention is intended for a thing such as a hat that is worn on the head, and biological information can be obtained even in animals other than humans.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Smart helmet 2 Cap body 3 Headband 4 Chin string 5 Electrode for biometric information acquisition 6 Temperature / humidity sensor 7 Acceleration sensor 8 Temperature / humidity sensor 9 Battery M Subject

Claims (5)

  A biological information acquisition electrode is provided in a portion of the headband or chin string that contacts the skin, and the biological information acquisition electrode is made of silver-coated organic fibers or a plurality of fibers containing silver-coated organic fibers. A smart helmet characterized in that it is made of a conductive cloth having flexibility, which is formed by weaving or knitting conductive fibers and non-conductive fibers.   The smart helmet according to claim 1, wherein the silver-coated organic fiber used for the electrode material is an aggregate having a thickness of 30 to 150 denier.   The smart helmet according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the silver-coated organic fiber has a silver coating amount of 5 to 30% by weight based on the weight of the organic fiber.   The smart helmet according to claim 1, wherein the silver-coated organic fiber has a surface resistance of 20 Ω / cm or less.   The smart helmet according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the silver-coated organic fiber has a specific gravity of 1.4 to 1.8.

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